Scarlet
by petiteshima
Summary: Her light has faded and left him empty, waiting for her return. A comforting hand reaches out to him. "I will seal your darkness Jellal, but only Erza can grant you the light."


**Excuse Ultear's OOC-ness but I love her as a maternal/caring person.  
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**Oh and this is not a Ultear/Jellal fanfic - it's Jellal/Erza...just without an appearance from Titania herself!**

_Disclaimer: I don't own Fairy Tail at all, Mashima Hiro does! _

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><p><em>Drip.<em>

_Drop._

_Drip._

_Drop._

"Nadal!" The shorter of the frog-like duo exclaimed as his partner twirled his magic staff between his long, lilac fingers, "S-stop it, please!"

The taller guard, Nadal, simply laughed, ignoring his fellow colleague's pleas as he pointed the wooden staff once again at the half-naked young man on the other side of the iron bars of the door.

"I want to hear him _scream_Rach," the sadistic guard did not turn his attention away from his target, "He ruined our council and the trust that the people of the country had bestowed upon us; he deserves every ounce of pain we throw at him."

"But Siegr—I mean Jellal is _bleeding_! That staff we were both given should only be used in emergencies!" Rach's round face was flustered as he tried to plead with Nadal, "And it's only meant to deliver acute pain towards the victim; you have used it so much on the prisoner that he is _wounded_!"

Nadal replied with a grunt, once again disregarding the pointless appeals, before a cruel smile spread across his face. Rach did not have to force himself to look away just in time as Nadal caused a beam of magic to shoot out from the round head of the staff and land on an already exhausted Jellal Fernandes who lay broken and bleeding on the stone floor of his cell.

Jellal's back arched as the pain hit him, knocking the breath out of him. Nadal watched in satisfaction as the blue haired man's limbs contorted with the pain. But, to Nadal's immense disappointment, the prisoner endured his suffering in silence, _again._

"Leave him be Nadal," Rach said earnestly, without turning around, "They have decided his execution will be next month; you will get your satisfaction then."

The thin frog guard released his staff's power on Jellal and grunted again, this time out of frustration. Casting a hateful glance at the shaking convict, Nadal turned on his heel and marched back to the _proper_ guard's post outside another door that led to where they usually stood directly outside Jellal's cell. Rach also glanced at Jellal, with pity rather than hatred, before he followed Nadal.

Once the two guards had gone, Jellal turned his head to the side and retched. Of course nothing came up; he had not been fed in four days. Still shaking, Jellal turned onto his side and grappled the wall for support as he hauled himself slowly to his knees. His battered form was suddenly wracked with a coughing fit as he gripped onto the wall in fear of collapsing to the ground again.

A harsh red splattered across the grey of the floor as Jellal threw up all that was left in him in between coughs; blood. As Jellal regained his breath, he watched as the blood he had just coughed up mixed with the blood that was slowly trickling from his stomach wound. He sometimes wondered if he would die in his small, cold cell rather than the public execution that he knew was planned for him.

Wincing, Jellal turned until his back made contact with the stone wall and he sank to the ground, his hand clamped down on his gash in a feeble effort to stop the now rapid bleeding.

'_I should just let myself die right now'_ Jellal thought as he looked down at the red liquid pouring out from the gaps between his fingers. _'It'll be a relief to everyone if I did. One less chore for the Council to deal with.' _Jellal chuckled wearily before he began to cough again, droplets of blood appearing on his chest from his mouth. _'Maybe I have pneumonia,' _the former Wizard Saint thought as his fit stopped '_that would explain the blood…' _

So, it was a battle between blood loss and pneumonia; which one would win and kill him first? Jellal didn't care what he would die of, as long as it did its job right.

He brought his blood stained hand from his stomach injury and examined the scarlet blood.

The _scarlet _blood.

Scarlet.

_Scarlet…_

"Erza…" He whispered, speaking for the first time. His hand clenched into a fist and hung limply by his side as she plagued his thoughts once again with her light. It was the only way he could _feel her_ since her presence had disappeared.

Her presence, no her _life_, was like a second heartbeat. Jellal could feel her wherever she was, no matter how far away she was. It was around one year ago when he had felt Erza's 'heartbeat' quicken with the adrenaline of what could only be a battle. He had willed her not to loose, despite being tortured by Nadal at the time. That was the last time he had cried out in pain from being tortured, because what would follow would never compare to any physical pain inflicted upon him. It was only a few hours later when he felt her presence beat one last time. And then there was silence.

It was an emptiness that hurt Jellal a hundred times more than being tormented by the Council. He'd tried to find it in the days that followed, closing his eyes and concentrating as he desperately sought her warm radiance, but alias he found nothing.

He'd heard the whispers from his guards, of how members of Fairy Tail had disappeared on an island by the name of Tenrou. Nadal, knowing of his connection to the guild, had taunted him briefly about the disappearance and possible _death_ of the Fairies. Jellal had ignored the frog like guard, who soon gave up on using Fairy Tail as a method of tormenting the former Wizard Saint.

Jellal's vision blurred as he let the blood flow freely from his wound, but the pain took a backseat in his mind which was filled with Erza. _'She's not dead'_ Jellal told himself, because that's what he believed. There was no way Erza would just…die. It was impossible to imagine the Titania to be a cold, unmoving corpse; an image that made Jellal physically sick. _'No, she's out there somewhere,' _He thought, closing his eyes,_ 'She's too stubborn to die.'_

As Jellal welcomed unconsciousness, he was not awake to witness his rescue.

He was not awake to witness a long, raven haired woman break into his cell, calling for her companion upon discovering Jellal out for the count.

He was not awake to realise that he was being carried out of the cell by the mysterious woman who announced to her companion that she had him.

He was not awake to see a petite pink haired girl defending the woman and himself as they made their way out of the Council headquarters.

And he was certainly not awake to feel the fresh air that whipped at his battered and bruised body as the trio made their way through the forest surrounding the Council building.

Jellal Fernandes had not been conscious to witness his rescue by Ultear Milkovich and the young girl called Meredy. Maybe it was for the best that he was not awake, being the masochistic he is, he probably would not have left that cell as a way of punishing himself.

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><p>"I thought I told you not to get into fights," Ultear scolded the young man that sat on the ground of the clearing before her, "And what do you do? You get into a stupid brawl at a bar! You're lucky that I came to get you when I did!"<p>

Meredy appeared behind Ultear, a first-aid kit in her dainty hands. "Ultear, he's bleeding."

"I know that," Ultear snapped, causing Meredy to flinch. Ultear brought a hand wearily to her face and sighed, her voice softer as she spoke again, "I'm sorry…it's been one of _those_ days."

Meredy nodded and knelt in front of the silent man as she opened the little green box, "I know, please don't apologise."

Ultear watched as Meredy stared clueless at the contents of the first-aid kid; the poor girl had no idea what to use to treat the blue-haired man.

"Meredy," Ultear kneeled beside the young girl and reached for the green box, "How about you go patrol the area whilst I handle this."

"But Ult-."

"Go," Ultear's voice was soft yet firm; her word was final. Meredy rose to her feet and, with one last worried look at the still, silent man, she took off into the trees surrounding the little clearing where they had chosen to reside for the night.

With Meredy's departure, Ultear turned her attention to the person before her.

"Jellal," She took out a cotton bud and dipped it into her bottle of water, "why did you punch that man at the bar?"

A shrug was what she got as an answer. Ultear frowned but refused to get angry; anger never worked on Jellal.

"It's not like you to use violence without a reason," She lifted the sodden cotton bud to Jellal's face, lightly dabbing the bleeding cut across this cheek, "Did you overhear something the man you were fighting said?"

Jellal's eyes flickered to Ultear for a moment before he resumed his staring contest with the forest floor, "He deserved it," Jellal murmured.

"Why did he deserve it?"

When Ultear was not granted with an answer she said, "Jellal, why did the man deserve it?"

Jellal's mouth opened and closed three times before all he said was, "Erza…"

'_I should've known'_ Ultear thought as she put a plaster on Jellal's cheek. It wasn't rare for the blue haired man to think about _her_. It had been nearly six years since she and Meredy had rescued him from the Council, and they had been living as fugitives ever since. They'd made themselves useful though, destroying Dark Guilds in order to gain redemption from their dark pasts.

The first year was the hardest for Jellal. Ultear couldn't count the amount of times she had woken to the young man's pained cries and screams as he slept. She'd held his hand most of the time, hoping it would bring him some form of comfort, as he writhed and cried in his sleep. In between the howls and yells, the name 'Erza' had come out of his mouth in a whispered voice which contradicting the shouts that proceeded it.

The years that followed were easier, but Jellal still had his moments. There was one particular day every year that Ultear and Meredy dreaded, a day that they had come to know of as Erza's birthday. On this day Jellal would leave the duo early in the day, wearing a hooded cloak to hide his face, and return back to base late into the night…drunk. One year he'd collapsed in the bar and Meredy had to drag him back to their mini campsite in the early hours of the morning. Another year they couldn't find him until the next day, when he was sitting on a rock at the local beach of where they had resided at the time. Ultear usually had to stay awake on the night following those days; Jellal's restless sleep from before returned to haunt them at this time. And today was that day, Erza's birthday.

"What did the man say?" Ultear asked, dreading carefully on the subject as she closed the first aid box.

"It wasn't about her to start with," Jellal said, wringing his hands together,"First it was about Fairy Tail, he was mocking the guild and how it had 'fallen from grace' to his drunken companions. Then he started to pick on individual members; primarily the ones who had disappeared. It was then that he spoke of _her_."

Jellal's face darkened as he continued, "He said, _'Titania? That bitch didn't know her place. Calling herself Queen of the Fucking Fairies. But I tell you what, she was a real looker. What I would do to her if I got her alone, if you know what I mean. I'd show her whose boss_.' Well I punched him before he could continue with his _sick_ words. I just saw red when I heard his words. I couldn't just sit there and let him speak about Erza in such a _vulgar_ manner," Jellal looked towards Ultear and said, "You think I should have left him alone, don't you?"

"I'm not saying nor thinking that you should have done nothing," Ultear said, laying a hand gently on her teammate's shoulder, "but you should not have acted so instinctively. You could have revealed your identity Jellal! We've worked so hard over the past few years that we cannot let a drunken, rash decision land us _all_ behind bars!"

Ultear's maternal instinct, the side of her personality that she showed to Meredy and, despite his age, Jellal, took over as she caught a flash of guilt, and worst of all, pain dart across his face; he was _still_ hurting after all these years.

She leaned up and hugged him tightly, smoothing his hair as she spoke in a tone a mother would use to calm her child, "I saw the guild mark on that man's arm; the dark guild, Harupia. Their leader, Racer, was defeated years ago by the members of an alliance of guilds; you were there, remember? How about we make them our next target?"

Ultear felt Jellal nod slightly against her shoulder before she pulled away from him, touching her forehead with his briefly. She rose to her feet along with Jellal. He pointed in the general direction of Meredy's earlier departure, "I'll go switch with Meredy; you both need to plan our attack on Harupia."

Ultear smiled slightly at the sight of Jellal seemingly normal again. "Okay," She replied as Jellal nodded before turning to the forest. He paused, looking up at the sky with a sad smile appearing on his face as he whispered something to himself softly, before disappearing into the trees in search of Meredy.

"I will seal your darkness, Jellal," Ultear spoke to herself, repeating the words that Gray and, apparently, her Mother had said, as the blue haired mage had left her company. _'But only Erza can grant you the light.'_ Ultear turned her gaze to the setting sun. She too smiled sadly as she thought of Jellal's parting words to the scarlet sky that would forever remind him of his beloved.

'_Happy Birthday Erza'_.

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><p><strong>Ta-da, my first attempt at a JellalErza related fanfic; I hope it was okay!**

**Please review; I would love to hear your thoughts! ^_^**


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